Investors have not stopped piling in the behemoths of the industry, it seems, quite the contrary.

Absolute Return’s latest Billion Dollar Club rankings show American hedge funds' assets are at their all time high; the last high asset level was $1.68tln in mid-2008.

The Billion Dollar Club, which includes all hedge fund firms managing $1bn or more and which churns out rankings twice a year, includes, as of 1st January 2014, 293 firms managing a total of $1.71tln, up from $1.46tln at the start of 2013. According to the news service, the funds gathered $250bn through 2013, the most since the credit crisis. In 2007, their assets grew by $407bn.

The Club had 287 firms managing $1.57tln six month before the current survey, in July 2013.

According to Absolute Return, the top 50 firms saw an increase of 17.44% in 2013, whereas the whole group saw 17.16%. Around two thirds of the firms in the Club increased their AuM last year.

The Club’s biggest winners are J.P. Morgan (with an AuM increase of $15bn, and which includes funds from J.P. Morgan, Highbridge Capital and Gavea Investimentos), AQR, Adage, Discovery and Och-Ziff. The biggest losers are Saba, Regiment, ESL, Standard Pacific, and QIM. Newcomers to the Club are Contour A.M., Arch......................